The Boy from Planet Earth
by Eurkos
Summary: First of probably many in a series. The beginning of a story about a boy who grew up on Zi without actually ever seeing a Zoid, and what happens to his life when he finds one. (Rewriting, if you think the title looks familiar)
1. Prologue

Writing and (most) characters © Jon Burke (me) 2003. Zoids is property Tomy, Hasbro, Cartoon Network, and whoever else that might lay claim to it that isn't me, 'cause I don't lay any claim to it. 

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**The Boy from Planet Earth**  
_ Prologue_

  
  


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The field was filled to the brim. Overflowing. Zoids as far as anyone could see, provided they were actually looking that far. The din of destruction permeated the landscape as Shield Ligers smashed into Rev Raptors; as Redlers and Storm Sworders filled the sky in a darkening haze.

This was a random, inconsequential event; commonplace on this planet. The Neo Backdraft War was a plague, destroying the people of Zi... and Zi itself.

Fall Back.

_Before the start of the Neo Backdraft War, the Zoids Battle Commission thrived. The Blitz Team's victory over Vega Obscura in the Royal Cup tournament marked a Golden Age for the ZBC. They were able to freely run their sanctioned battles, with no interference. The Backdraft Group crumbled._

But it was not meant to be.

A new team surfaces. 'Angel'. They take the ZBC by storm, winning every battle, destroying every opponent they face. Maybe it was because of...

"This battle is over!" the metallic voice filled the ears of all the pilots that still stood. "The winners of the Royal Cup are... 'Angel'!"

A roar. A victory roar, at that. A very familiar one; it sent chills down most peoples' spines.

The Berserk Fuhrer.

After winning the Royal Cup Tournament, the head of 'Angel' revealed his identity. People had suspected it, but never truly believed it.

"It can't be him..." they said.

But it was.

Vega Obscura spearheaded an upheaval that rocked the planet. In a matter of years, the Neo Backdraft had wiped out nearly half of the ZBC, and had destroyed most of Zi while doing so. All military action against the terror ended in failure. There was no stopping the coming destruction.

But the War ended. Bit Cloud was discovered dead, and the Liger Zero was hidden from the public eye. The Berserk Fuhrer was found, disabled and abandoned. It went the way of the Zero. Vega Obscura was declared by the ZBC to have been killed, and the fighting came to a staggering halt.

Advance.

The Planet still suffered, however. Zealots with influence were not ready to see the Backdraft die again. Fighting picked up, but was crushed under the new-found might of the Battle Commission. They had discovered a unique Zoid Core. One that had been tucked away into the innermost regions of the planet. The Death Saurer was alive once again.

Eventually, people moved on. Most left their Zoids for scrap, and the sanctioned battles halted. No one wanted anything to do with these... things. Humans need a release. A scapegoat. Blame the Zoids, they thought. And it worked. The people were happy again.

Some weren't so eager to give up. People were to blame, not Zoids. They held onto their companions, and started fighting again. Not warring... battling. Like it used to be. The Zoids Battle Commission was needed once more.

And they rose to the need.

ZBC Central, the heart of the Battle Commission, was rebuilt. People could once again register and battle. But there were still those who did not wish for this to take place. 

Small villages sprouted all over the planet once people began to settle again. Once the wake of the destruction dissipated. Many of the villagers shunned Zoids. In these towns, it was common for children to not even know what a Zoid was.

Zi was slowly healing herself, and so were her people.


	2. Small Town Hues

(author's note: I'm breaking this up into a bunch of shorter chapters, because it was easier for me to organize the ideas that way.)

  


Nestled in the valley of the Northern Mountains, a small village sat peacefully. The remote location was very much intentional, as the village's elders wanted nothing more than to be as far away from the southerly Twilight City as possible.

Away, that is, from the Zoids Battle Commission.

The town was little more than a sprinkling of some houses in the grasslands that filled the valley. They weren't exactly mud huts, but they were fairly simple compared to modern standards. There was a fire pit, for cooking on, and other utility areas. One of the Elders had a television in his house, to keep tabs on the outside world... sometimes.

It was night time, which meant it was time to tell the children a story. The Elders told the children in Tareffson all sorts of stories, ranging from fairy tales to actual events. This time, they told the kids that the event was true.

"Tareffson was once a prosperous city, you know," Elder Graven started, "It was packed full of people, and buildings, and all sorts of different things."

Elder Mathieu looked at his younger counterpart and couldn't help but laugh. Graven wasn't all that old, like his title would suggest. Graven's father recently passed away, leaving the title to his son.

The children loved Graven, and enjoyed it when he told the stories. Mathieu had a particular distaste for them, so he had no trouble letting Graven grant the children's wish. Mathieu was much older than Graven, and actually had a hard time talking properly.

"But..." Graven continued, "It wasn't all fun and games. There was war. Lots of fighting. Tareffson was one of many cities on this planet that fought wars in big machines shaped like animals. It was these animals, the Bringers of Destruction, that eventually led to the downfall of all the cities, including Tareffson."

The children looked at Graven intently, fixated on his words. One child had a particular interest, but not the one the Elders hoped for. The child looked down at the ground through eyes colored like pale slate, wearing a thoughtful expression.

I wonder what they were like... the boy thought to himself. This was Vykk Eurkos. He was known in the town as a curious child. Vykk had taken apart and reassembled most of the town's few mechanical devices. Or, he tried to put them back together at least. His curiosity led him to wonder about the Bringers of Destruction often. He wanted to see one... to see what the big deal was.

After a while, the children all went to bed in their respective houses. Vykk sat up, like he did every night, thinking about the Bringers of Destruction.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Vykk! Time to get up! Your friends are here!" Vykk was already awake when he heard his mom calling. Rushing out of his room and through the small houses main room, he shouted a quick goodbye to his mom, and ran out to meet his friends. Vykk was of a fairly average height, standing a little taller than some of his friends, and a little shorter than just as many. He was fairly thin, since he spent most of his time outside. There wasn't much else to do in Tareffson after all.

"Why do you always sleep so late?" one of his friends asked, mock-scolding the boy. Vykk looked over and saw Mai, a less-frequent addition to the group. She had long, violet hair and eyes that matched. Vykk thought she was pretty, but never actually said anything.

"Because!" Vykk retorted, not really caring to think of anything else. Without another discernable word, the group left the town, heading out to do more exploring of the area.


	3. Not the Best of Days

"Well, maybe if you weren't such a nancy boy, you wouldn't be stuck in that Command Wolf!"

The voice flowed across the com channel as though it belonged there and not heard by natural means. It just seemed... right. The voice belonged to Commander Dal Connors, although people who called him Dal didn't talk much afterward.

"There's a difference between being tough and being crusty," another voice retorted, in a mocking tone. "They have you even out your crustiness with a fresh, new Zoid."

The voices were bouncing back and forth between a small group of Zoids. Two Command Wolves, and a Great Sabre, to be precise. All three were painted in camouflage to hide themselves in the grass, as well as the sparse forests that the Northern Valley held.

"No, I just take my job seriously." Connors responded. His voice sounded scolding, but in a joking sort of way. The group was fairly laid back as far as military units go, since they had the easy job. Most of the towns in the Northern Valley shunned Zoids, and the ones that didn't had stuff like Godos' and Guysacks for construction purposes. Occasionally they saw Zabats carrying Bind Containers, probably transporting supplies from Twilight City in the south.

"Uh... sir?" a third voice invaded the conversation, sounding a little more serious, and nervous. "Take a look at your sensors. Something's moving behind us. They're coming in quick."

Connors looked at his sensors, and cursed under his breath. Someone was about to get the jump on them. Well, he wouldn't have that. With a flick of his more-than-experienced wrist, he flipped on the Sabre's three-dimensional radar system, which quickly set to work mapping out the terrain surrounding them and feeding it through a small monitor as a wireframe landscape. On the grid, two fully rendered green forms moved, heading toward the group.

"Helcats..." Connors said to himself. "Cloaked ones. Let me take care of 'em."

"Aye, sir," the Command Wolf pilots both replied in unison. They walked forward, away from the Helcats, as Connors turned his Great Sabre around.

"Alright... time to see what this experimental model can do..." Connors said to himself. He quickly aimed the Sabre's shoulder mounted guns and fired a few rounds at the approaching Helcats, more as a warning shot than anything else. The Helcats responded by dodging the shots with ease, and pivoting large gatling cannons at the Sabre. Connors cursed again as shelling rained over his Zoid, pelting the Sabre's armor.

"How're they firing that quickly?" he asked the air, not really talking to anyone else. Almost immediately, a readout popped up on the monitor, telling Connors about the Hiblit Vulcans that had been fitted to the Helcats, and suggested that he use the ASU to block their shots. Connors stared at the screen for a brief second, his gaze breaking when the Sabre was hit with more fire. Franticly searching the console, Connors found a button labeled 'ASU', and quickly slammed his palm down on it.

Outside, the Command Wolf pilots, as well as the Helcat pilots, watched as an angular energy shield pieced itself together around the Sabre, covering it on all angles. The Helcats stopped firing, and split up, attempting to flank the Sabre.

"Get out of here! Go get help!" Connors barked orders at the Command Wolf pilots.

"But, sir! There could be more of them!"

"Which is why you need to go get help. I'll hold 'em off!" As he said this, the shield around the Sabre was hit hard by missiles from either side of it. The Helcats obviously had more than the Hiblits. More missiles, and the shield was taken down. Connors cursed, and activated the flight pack. The Sabre shot through the air, landing on top of one of the cloaked Sabres. "GO! That's an order!" he shouted. Without any more talk, the Command Wolves turned and sprinted away.

The Sabre roared in pain as missiles struck its back leg. Connors pulled back on the controls, and let out a sort of battle cry. There was no way he was losing to a couple of Helcats. The standing Helcat lowered its stealth shield, allowing Connors to spot it. The two Zoids exchanged fire, the Helcat dealing more damage to the Sabre's leg.

However, Connors was the better shot, and felled the Helcat fairly easily. As the enemy Zoid fell to the ground, surrounded by thin blue threads of electricity, Connors ran a system check on the Sabre. The check was about halfway finished when the Sabre was slammed hard from the side. The hit was strong enough to send the Sabre sprawling to the ground, breaking cockpit glass and bumping Connors around a bit. His stomach slammed into the controls, and he coughed up blood.

Quickly composing himself, he brought the Sabre to its feet, looking for the source of the impact. A Shield Liger, painted the same as the Helcats, folded its energy panels back in, lowering its shield. Connors guessed that the Liger had rammed him. What he couldn't guess was how the Liger managed to avoid his sensors. But now wasn't the time.

Connors slammed his fist down on the controls, hitting the trigger for the Sabre's mortar launchers, sending all eight projectiles careening into the Shield Liger's face. Normally Connors avoided cockpit shots, but his stomach was killing him, so he wanted to end this quickly. The Shield Liger stopped moving, and simply fell down, face first. Well... what was left of its face, anyway. The explosion from the mortars had done extensive damage, peeling away most of the Liger's face armor, and obliterating the cockpit.

After scanning the area again, Connors was convinced that there were no other Zoids around, so he ran the system check again. All internal systems were still functioning at full capacity, but the Sabre's back left leg needed repairs. Wiring in the leg had been damaged, and needed to be fixed before it could move much farther. Connors cursed to himself, and ran another scan of the area, finding the closest town.

"There... that one." He said. Grabbing a bag full of supplies from behind the cockpit seat, Connors opened the cockpit and lowered the Sabre down to the ground. He input a timed command, telling the Sabre to raise its shield in three minutes. After that, he jumped to the ground and headed for the town that he picked out on the sensors.


	4. The Cave

"Vykk? … Vykk!… VYKK! Get up!"

The female voice called out through the small house, attempting to rouse its owner's son from his slumber. Liana Eurkos wandered toward Vykk's room, pushing the door open.

"Your friends are here… get up," the woman lovingly informed her son.

"Alright… alright…" Vykk replied groggily. "What time is it, anyway?"

"11:40."

"They're late."

After a little while, Vykk emerged from his room, dressed in a plain black t-shirt, a pair of olive colored pants, and a pair of nondescript sandals. He hadn't touched his hair since he woke up, nor did he care to. Once outside, he was greeted by a small group of kids. Maise Finealta, her younger brother Dris, as well as Vykk's best friend, Leigh Dearg.

They immediately set out to do what they did every day: explore the 'cave'. A short distance from the town (out of eye-sight), an odd sort of hole was in the ground in the fields. It wasn't marked as anything important, but it was rather large. It took them a little while to work up the courage, but they eventually went into the hole, which opened into a slanted path downward, into a network of tunnels. Every day, they went a little farther.

This time, they decided to bring a flashlight with them, since the light didn't reach as far as they planned on going. "Hey… are you sure we should do this?" Maise asked the others. She was usually the 'wet blanket' of the group, and tried to be the voice of reason. But, to a group of early-teenaged boys, there was no reason.

"Aww, c'mon Mai… don't wuss out now," Leigh replied. "What kind of example would that set?" Leigh enjoyed pointing out that Mai was older than the other three whenever possible, even if it was only by a year.

"Hey… let's just go, ok?" Vykk suggested, not really wanting to stand around by the mouth of the cave while Mai and Leigh bickered with each other. If anyone else had made the same suggestion, Mai would've refused. But Vykk… well, he was the whole reason she went along with them at all… ever. But she would never let him know that.

They needed the flashlight soon after entering the cave, which seemed odd to them. They'd gone this far in before without it… why did they need it now? Trying not to worry too much, they pushed on, eager to see where the cave led. They didn't get far into unexplored territory before Mai's worries were proven to be warranted. Leigh began to fall behind, and none of the other three payed it any mind. That is, until they heard his stifled scream.

Back in town, the bustle of a newcomer filled the square. There was a man, covered in blood. Rumors instantly began to fill the town: "I heard that he's a spy, sent to kill us… we should be careful." "But I'm pretty sure he's just a farmer from the next town over… he can't be a spy…"

After the man got some rest, the Elders went to talk to him. The only information that the man was willing to give was his name, rank, and the fact that he was a pilot. Neither Elder was happy at all with this man's presence, because they knew that a "pilot" in the area meant only one thing.

The Bringers of Destruction had found their town.


End file.
